Chapter Forty One- Brandon

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12 years ago

"Seriously, Brandon," Sadie rolled her eyes, adjusting her weight on the couch. "You don't need to stay with me. I am perfectly fine spending a few hours on my own and binge-watching Gossip Girl."

"First of all, that show is trash." I arched my eyebrow at her. "If I'm staying, we're watching One Tree Hill. And second of all, I don't even like skiing all that much." I shrugged, hoping she couldn't tell I was lying through my teeth.

I had been looking forward to this trip for months. A few days on the slopes of the Rocky Mountains with my family and the Sorentos was my dream, and when our parents rented this lodge, I was over the moon. But yesterday, Sadie had taken a bad fall and we were pretty sure her leg was broken. It was still so swollen the resort doctors couldn't cast it, but they put her in a huge brace and she was confined to crutches for the foreseeable future.

She had sworn up and down she would be fine on her own, but I wasn't about to pass up a little one on one time with her. Over the last few months, it was like I had made the shift from looking at Sadie as my little sister to looking at her as the most incredible woman I had ever met. The feelings were slow at first and mostly came in the form of jealousy when I saw the attention she got from other guys. But once I started to acknowledge it, my feelings for her hit me like a brick wall. I started texting her all the time, especially when I knew she was with another guy. I would choose to hang out in the backyard with her roasting marshmallows than go to the parties my friends were throwing. I had even resurrected the old walkie talkies we had when we were younger so we could sit in our windows and talk to each other at night, long after everyone else had gone to sleep. As far as I knew, she thought we were just best friends, but I was hanging on her every word, laughing at her jokes, I memorized the way the corners of her mouth turned up when she was genuinely happy about something. All of a sudden, she wasn't just my friend, I as crushing hard, and I was scared to admit it to anyone, let alone her.

So needless to say, I jumped on the opportunity to spend some time with her alone. And when I chose that over skiing the powder I was dreaming about, I knew I was in deep shit.

Sadie looked at me skeptically. "You don't like skiing all that much?"

I shook my head. "Too cold."

"So all the hours I listened to you talk about this trip were just for show?"

"My parents were excited, I didn't want to disappoint them and tell them I didn't really want to go." I shrugged, a smile tugging at my lips. She wasn't buying what I was saying but I continued the lie to protect my image.

"Right." She smirked, grabbing the remote from me. "If you're really all that excited about sitting around in this stuffy lodge all day, who am I to stop you? But I'm not compromising on my show choice."

"Gossip girl, it is." I chuckled, sliding down onto the couch next to her.

The next few hours we were immersed in the world of teenage girl drama, and Sadie ate up every second of it. I couldn't concentrate on the show though, nearly having a damn heart attack when she propped her leg up on mine, intertwine our bodies. I didn't say anything about it, but I was silently losing my shit, reading into every movement she made.

After a while, she yawned, her body melting into mine a little bit more as she stretched her arms over her head. "Alright I'm bored."

"We could go out onto the balcony if you want. I'll grab your crutches." I started to move but she grabbed my arm.

"No, I'm comfortable here. And besides, weren't you the one complaining about the cold? It's blizzard and you want to go sit on the balcony in your t-shirt and shorts?" She smirked, catching me in my lie.

"Good point." I quickly changed the subject. "Board games?"

"No." She shook her head. "I'm tired of beating you so bad at Scrabble every time we play."

I burst out laughing, although it was true. Sadie wiped the floor with me every time we played the game. I had even downloaded Words with Friends so I could practice, but it still wasn't helping. "Another fair point. I appreciate you considering my ego in all of this."

"What are friends for?" She smiled, laying her head down on my shoulder. There was that dreaded 'F' word again.

Her phone started buzzing and she glanced at the screen before tossing it to the side.

"Who was it?" I asked curiously.

"Brooks." She said flatly.

"You're still dating that douchebag?" I rolled my eyes in irritation. There was nothing that could sour my mood quite like thinking of Brooks Carrigan taking Sadie out, and doing who knows what else.

Sadie shrugged. "We've only gone out a few times, I'd hardly call it dating. And you don't have to be so rude you know, he's a nice guy."

I had to hide my smile at the way she described him as nice. Nice was not the way described someone you were even remotely attracted to.

"I'm sure he's very nice." I quipped, dragging out the word nice more than necessary. My mocking earned a good eyeroll from her. "All I'm saying is you could do way better than that guy."

Sadie was getting irritated, but a soft smile began to tug at her lips. "What? Like you?"

Her response caught me off guard and I had to fight the urge to scream yes. That was exactly what I had in mind. I had not stopped imagining how I would treat Sadie like a queen and our whole relationship over the last several months. Instead of saying that though, I just shrugged. "I mean there are a lot of guys better then Brooks out there."

"Interesting." Sadie clicked her tongue. "I appreciate your concern but I'll tell you what? If there was another guy out there who was interested, he'd have to get a hell of a lot better at expressing himself."

I could feel the blood rushing to my cheeks. "Is that so?"

"Yep." She nodded. "He'd have to quit all the games he's playing. No more trying to act like he doesn't care, belittling every guy I go on date with, laughing at my jokes that really aren't all that funny. And he'd certainly have to stop making such shitty excuses to hang out with me."

I couldn't help but laugh. Sadie was too smart for her own good. Apparently, I hadn't been as sly as I thought over the last few weeks. "Say there was a guy like this out there..."

She nodded curiously.

"One that was trying to fight the feelings he had for you, but failing miserably and completely falling for you." I moved closer to her, my lips hovering just inches away from hers. "One that would take care of you, and support your dreams, and watch cheesy chick shows just to make you smile. One that's been waiting for the right opportunity to talk to you about it, and praying that you felt the same way. What would he have to do to get a chance?" I was in my element now, and I finally had the upper hand. I could tell by the deep blush in her cheeks and the way her pulse quickened.

"Just say so." She whispered, her deep brown eyes locking with mine.

I smirked, pulling away and sitting up straight. "Great. I'll keep that in mind if I ever meet a guy like that then." I teased. Man, did I enjoy playing with her. I was willing to bet she was completely hot and bothered right now.

"You're such an idiot sometimes."

"You're right. If I wasn't such an idiot, I would have done this a long time ago." I leaned forward, pressing my lips to hers gently at first, and then kissing her with all the hunger I had been feeling over the last few months. It was like my heart was bursting, tasting the sweet honey of her lips and feeling her relax into my mouth. The soft moan that escaped her ignited a fire department inside of me. I was a hormonal teenage boy, but I had to contain myself. Sadie deserved so much better for her first time to be so hasty and spontaneous. We were both caught up in the moment and I needed to know she wouldn't regret it. The very last thing I wanted was for her to resent me in anyway and I knew I had to take this slow. She was young, and she was like family. If at the end of the day, it meant she would be mine, I could keep myself at bay.

When she finally pulled away, desperate for air, her smile was so wide it was nearly blinding. "I can't believe we just did that."

"It was just a kiss, Sadie." I held her hand gently. "If it didn't mean anything to you and you want to go back to the way things were, that's fine with me. But I had to try."

"Not a chance." She gasped. "I can't even tell you how long I've been waiting for you to do that."

"Really?" I grinned, a mixture of relief and surprise. "What about Brooks?"

"I had to push you somehow. God knows if I just waited around for you to make move, we'd be old and grey before either of knew how the other one felt." She'd been one step ahead of me the entire time.

"So you manipulated me?"

"Manipulated is an ugly word. I like 'spurred on' better." She smiled. Fuck, I would never get tired of seeing that smile and the happiness in her eyes.

"If you were so confident in how I felt, why not make a move yourself?" I arched an eyebrow inquisitively.

"I'm way too much a lady for that. And believe me, I know how you think. It had to be your idea." She narrowed her eyes at me playfully.

"So conceiving. What am I going to do with you?" I slid my arm underneath her so that I was hovering above her now.

"Hopefully exactly what you just did." She giggled. "Or more."

Present

"I confirmed with the station, Brandon. They have no more business with Sadie and Herrera was let go and relieved of all official duties related to the case." My dad said solemnly.

"So he's got her." I gritted my teeth, rage burning in my veins.

"We don't know that..." My dad tried to calm me down.

"Of course, we fucking know that!" I bellowed. "We should have known that's what he was after from the very beginning. That bastard never cared about shutting us down, all he wanted was Sadie."

"Look, that's a bit of a stretch." He said cautiously. "If he wanted Sadie, he could have left us completely out of it. Sadie is just getting in his way, and that's all this about."

"Which means he doesn't have much reason to keep her alive." Alex said flatly.

I swallowed hard, not even letting myself consider that possibility. I hadn't waited all of this time and fought to get her back for that bastard to come in here and destroy everything. I moved quickly, jerking a few machine guns off of the wall and tossing them into a bag.

"What are you doing?" My dad asked.

"What does it look like I'm doing?" I growled. "I'm going to find my wife and take that motherfucker for everything he's worth."

"You don't even know where he is." Alex tried to reason with me too, but there was nothing that was going to get in my way. The longer I stayed around her gathering intel and forming a plan, the longer she spent in whatever hell she was going through. If Herrera wanted me, that was exactly what he was going to get.

"No, but I know he's got Sadie and I am going to find him. You guys can either come with me, or stay here, but either way I'm going."

My dad and Alex shared a worried glance but eventually grabbed a few guns of their own. We had no idea what we were walking into, so we had to be prepared. And if Herrera didn't have enough lead bullets in him to sink to the bottom of the ocean when we were done, I wouldn't be happy.

"I'll have Ro meet us at the warehouse, we're going to need vests." My dad scratched his head.

"And Jav just texted me Herrera's last known address and a few other properties listed in his name. It looks like they're mostly around Franklin." Alex said.

I nodded. "We need to be extra cautious he's around her when we get there. I don't want her hurt in anyway so if he's got her and is holding a knife to her throat or something like that, we drop our guns and we try to talk him down. I can't take any chances, Sadie is pregnant."

Alex and my dad both looked at me in stunned silence, but eventually followed me.

"Let's do this." 


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